ChiRex Technology Center To Offer Process Development Solutions

The ChiRex Technology Center (CTC), a full-service chemical process development facility, is to commence operations in the first quarter of 1999 with an operating budget of $3 million per year. Professor Eric Jacobsen, who sits on the board of directors and the scientific advisory board of ChiRex, Inc., will serve as the Center's director.

The Center allows ChiRex to accelerate the development and application of its proprietary technologies, brings ChiRex's technology base into closer proximity to the company's key customers and allows Dr. Jacobsen to take a more active role in ChiRex's activities. It will function as a full-service, chemical process organization and will offer manufacturing solutions and process development support for all new chemical entities.

"ChiRex has a rich portfolio of valuable proprietary technologies based on selective catalytic reactions," explained Dr. Jacobsen, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. "The goal of the ChiRex Technology Center is to develop fully and exploit the commercial potential of these technologies through process research, contract process development and small-scale synthesis."

"Many of our current and prospective customers are relying more on outsourcing alternatives to supplement their in-house development capabilities," said Michael A. Griffith, chairman and chief executive officer, ChiRex Inc. "They tell us that a dedicated process development facility such as the CTC will benefit them economically and speed the drug development process."

ChiRex will use its portfolio of proprietary technologies to develop novel manufacturing processes that will mirror a customer's in-house development capabilities. The developed processes will then be transferred to ChiRex's manufacturing facilities in Dudley, England and Annan, Scotland, where they can be scaled-up to produce products for clinical trial quantities through commercial production.

For more information: Michael A. Griffith, chairman and chief executive officer, ChiRex Inc., 300 Atlantic Street, Suite 402, Stamford, CT 06901, USA. Telephone: 203-351-2300. Fax: 203-425-9996.